ARTICLE Received 25 Apr 2014 | Accepted 26 Sep 2014 | Published 13 Nov 2014 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6389 Crown ethers in graphene Junjie Guo1,2,*,w, Jaekwang Lee1,3,*, Cristian I. Contescu1, Nidia C. Gallego1, Sokrates T. Pantelides1,3, Stephen J. Pennycook1,2, Bruce A. Moyer4 & Matthew F. Chisholm1,2 Crown ethers are at their most basic level rings constructed of oxygen atoms linked by two- or three-carbon chains. They have attracted attention for their ability to selectively incor- porate various atoms or molecules within the cavity formed by the ring. However, crown ethers are typically highly flexible, frustrating efforts to rigidify them for many uses that demand higher binding affinity and selectivity. Here we present atomic-resolution images of the same basic structures of the original crown ethers embedded in graphene. This arrangement constrains the crown ethers to be rigid and planar. First-principles calculations show that the close similarity of the structures should also extend to their selectivity towards specific metal cations. Crown ethers in graphene offer a simple environment that can be systematically tested and modelled. Thus, we expect that our finding will introduce a new wave of investigations and applications of chemically functionalized graphene. 1 Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA. 2 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA. 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235, USA. 4 Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA. * These authors contributed equally to this work. w Present address: Key Laboratory of Interface Science and Engineering, Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to M.F.C. (email: [email protected]). NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:5389 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6389 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1 & 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6389 lmost a half century ago, the introduction of crown ethers1 created a sensation by demonstrating that weakly Acoordinating ether atoms held together in large molecular rings could selectively bind alkali metal cations. The implications for a new ‘host-guest’ chemistry stirred the imagination of chemists with exciting possibilities of tailoring molecules with 18-crown-6 cavities whose size, shape and donor properties would allow for D3d the capture of any desired guest species for seemingly boundless applications2–11. Since its discovery as a stable two-dimensional material in 2004 (ref. 12), graphene has been widely and actively explored in the hopes of functionalizing this remarkable material13–15. Graphene oxide is the most-studied form of functionalized grapheme16,17.It is believed that graphene oxide to a first approximation consists 18-crown-6 of defective graphene sheets with oxygen-containing epoxy and hydroxyl groups on the surface and carboxylic, hydroxyl and Ci carbonyl groups at the sheet edges18. Controlled chemical19 or thermal20 reduction of graphene oxide has also been shown to provide tunability of the electronic21–23 and optical24 properties. Hossain et al.25 have shown that it is possible to produce a chemically homogeneous and reversible form of graphene with epoxy functionalization. However, the structure of the as- prepared graphene oxide and, thus, its corresponding properties Figure 1 | Atomic structures of crown molecules with different symmetry are metastable because of continuous desorption of weekly (D3d and Ci). (a) Typical two-dimensional representation of 18-crown-6, so- 1 bonded oxygen from graphene even at room temperature26. named by Pedersen .(b) Top view and (c) side view of 18-crown-6 in its Reduced graphene oxide is largely pristine graphene that contains crown-shaped D3d symmetry (H atoms are black and O atoms are red). The significant amounts of residual oxygen (B8–10 at. %19,24) even C–O–C dipoles imperfectly converge towards the central cavity. (d) Side þ after high-temperature annealing (800–1,100 °C) or long time view of K ion captured within 18-crown-6 with D3d symmetry with C–O–C þ chemical reduction. We have studied the most stable oxygen– dipoles slightly rotated toward the K ion but still only at a grazing angle. carbon complexes. (e) Top view of 18-crown-6 (van der Waals radii) as crystallized with Ci Despite high-resolution electron microscopy studies of the symmetry, no cavity, and divergent C–O–C dipoles. local oxygen–carbon atomic configurations present in graphene oxide25,27,28, it has been NMR, infrared absorption and electron diffraction that so far have provided the best information on the its natural shape typically lacking a cavity (Fig. 1e). The reorga- oxygen bonding configurations in graphene oxide29–31. One nization often introduces significant ring strain, which adds a reason for this is that only the most strongly bound further energy cost to ion binding34. Cram9 elegantly configurations can withstand the high-energy electron beam in demonstrated the extremely high binding affinity that can be an electron microscope. The most stable oxygen–carbon groups obtained by rigidifying (that is, ‘preorganizing’) the host were thought to be present at the edge of the graphene oxide molecule. sheets18. However, the only image of oxygen in graphene that we have found in the literature to date is in the work of Zan et al.27, Experimental structures. Medium-angle annular dark-field where an oxygen atom is imaged incorporated in the graphene (ADF) imaging in an aberration-corrected STEM combined with lattice after a hole is refilled with migrating absorbed carbon electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) reveals that our gra- atoms and an oxygen impurity atom. phene oxide samples contain detectable amounts of Si, O and C Here using aberration-corrected scanning transmission elec- (see Supplementary Fig. 1). Most of the Si and O are found to be tron microscopy (STEM)32, we obtained direct images of the located in the thicker amorphous-looking layers on the graphene. atomic configurations of what we calculate to be the most stable Si is also found at edges of the graphene sheets. However, no trace oxygen atoms incorporated in graphene. Maarouf et al.33 have of oxygen at the investigated edges was detected. Oxygen atoms recently shown that using first-principles calculations that were found in graphene only at the edges of small holes in the n-doping of graphene can be achieved by adding K or Na to an graphene lattice. These small holes along with paired five- and O-passivated pore created by removing 12 carbon atoms. seven-atom defects are the most common lattice defects found in the single layers of graphene oxide that we examined. The five- Results and seven-atom defects (two-dimensional dislocations) appear to be the result of reconstructions of multisite vacancies in graphene Crown ether structures. Crown ether molecules are often pre- layers32. Figure 2a–d shows the ADF images of oxygen atoms sented as prototypical host molecules, but in fact this family of incorporated in graphene multivacancies. compounds has proved limited in binding strength and selectiv- ity. In contrast to the flat two-dimensional drawings of crown ethers typically shown with all of the oxygen atoms lining a Calculated structures. First-principles calculations of the relaxed central cavity (Fig. 1a), the ether dipoles do not actually point structures are superimposed on the experimental images Fig. 2i–l. directly at the guest ion within the three-dimensional cavity The binding energy of oxygen in these configurations is B9.0 eV. (Fig. 1b–d). Consequently, the electrostatic energy realized on Under 60 keV electron beam irradiation, the maximum energy binding is much smaller than what is available if the dipoles could transfer to an oxygen atom is about 8.1 eV35. This is the reason converge completely without strain. Another limitation arises that we are able to directly observe this stable oxygen from the flexibility of the crown ether rings, which gives rise to an configuration in graphene. The oxygen atoms present in entropic cost in reorganizing the molecule to open its cavity from graphene oxide as epoxy and hydroxyl groups have lower 2 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:5389 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6389 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications & 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6389 ARTICLE Figure 2 | Atomic structures of oxygen atoms incorporated in graphene multivacancies. (a–d) Experimental STEM-ADF Z-contrast images of oxygen atoms (one, two, three and four, respectively) in graphene multivacancies. (e–h) Experimental STEM-ADF Z-contrast images of oxygen atoms processed to remove noise and probe-tail effects. (i–l) Calculated structures overlaid on the corresponding ADF images, for the defects shown in a–d, respectively. Scale bar, 0.2 nm. P P P P P V P PPV2 4 P V P V6 12 P P P P P D=4a D=a D=2a D=3a 10-crown-2 12-crown-3 14-crown-4 18-crown-6 Figure 3 | Calculated structures of multi-atom vacancies in graphene before and after oxygen incorporation. (a–d) the relaxed atomic models of multivacancies in graphene (double, tetra, hexa and dodeca, respectively). ‘P’ indicates the five-atom rings and Vn indicates the number of vacancies. (e–h) sequence of resulting crown ether structures after oxygen incorporation. Cavity diameter is indicated, in which ‘a’ is the C–C distance (B1.426 Å). binding energy (3.75 eV/O and 1.5 eV/OH) and are therefore calculations of multi-atom vacancies in graphene before and removed during investigation by electron microscopy. To after oxygen incorporation were performed. Figure 3 shows that understand how the observed structures are formed, the oxygen is incorporated in the pentagonal carbon rings formed NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 5:5389 | DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6389 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 3 & 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited.